No one knew the extent of Justin Williams’ injury after he was destroyed in the corner last night by Flames’ defenseman Robyn Regehr. From the moment he hit the glass, it didn’t look good for Williams or the Kings. He immediately skated off the ice holding his shoulder, walked down the tunnel, and never returned. The Kings ended up winning the game in a shootout, but the loss of Williams will have longer lasting effects than a single victory.

Today, the Kings organization announced that Williams dislocated his shoulder on the hit and will be out 3-4 weeks. If everything goes without a hitch, he should be available to the Kings near the end of the first round or the beginning of the second round. For a team battling for a playoff spot, assuming a first or second round return might be putting the cart before the horse. On the possibility of Williams coming back during the playoffs, Terry Murray explained the importance of caution:

“It will be a rehab process now. Give it a chance and see how it comes around. Obviously there will have to be a harness worn, as you come back and start to see if it’s going to work or not, and make a decision as to whether he can play or what it will be like after four weeks of rehab.”

For a team in desperate need of some goal scoring, this couldn’t have come at a worse time. The Kings are 1-1-1 over their last three, but have only mustered a total of 2 goals over the 190 minutes of playing time. For his part, Williams is second on the team in scoring with 22 goals and 35 assists for 57 points. Playing with Jarret Stoll and Ryan Smyth, he’s been the focal point of the Kings’ strong second line for the majority of the season.

Los Angeles has called up 22-year-old Oscar Moller from Manchester to replace the versatile Williams. He’s scored a total of 12 goals and 13 assists in his 78 game NHL career. This season, he put up three points (1g, 2a) in four games with the big club. While the right wing was down with the Monarchs in the AHL, he was able to score 23 goals in 59 games.

It’s probably a little too much to ask for the young Moller to step right in and fill Justin Williams’ skates in the middle of a playoff fight. If the Kings want to hold onto their playoff spot, they’re going to need everyone on the team to step up and put goals on the scoreboard. Terry Murray said that he’ll expect more from everyone—specifically calling out both Wayne Simmonds and Alexei Ponikarovsky. There’s no question the Kings would like for Ponikarovsky to improve on the 5 goals he’s scored this season; but more goals from guys like Ryan Smyth, Dustin Brown, Dustin Penner, and Jarret Stoll would go a long way towards filling the void as well.

New York Islanders forward Josh Ho-Sang provided an interesting take to Newsday’s Arthur Staple, and also reminded observes that, as an international sport, the NHL features some players who might not feel as invested in (or at least as informed about) these debates.

“I think what the NFL players are doing is amazing. It’s good that they’re all sticking together,” Ho-Sang said on Monday. “I mean, I’m Canadian, so I don’t have too much input on the matter itself. It will affect me living in the States, but the biggest thing is it’s unfortunate that the message may have gotten lost a little. Now it’s becoming a battle between the NFL and the president and originally [the protests] started because of police brutality and the mistreatment of different races.”

“Protecting the First Amendment is a huge thing,” Okposo said. “I’m a proud American, and I’m proud to be from the United States. Myself personally, I wouldn’t kneel for an anthem, but I respect those that do.”

***

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen the current political climate affect NHL players or people they know.

Players in plenty of sports are navigating tough questions this week. It’s important to remember that athletes can find themselves in tough spots when addressing topics that can be polarizing and/or complex.

Can't imagine being 20 years old, talking to a pack of reporters about controversial protests, knowing that any misstep releases the hounds.

With the regular season about to kick into gear on Oct. 4, it’s certain that there will be more eyes on anthems than ever before. The insights in this post should be useful, whether NHL players kneel, sit, speak, or decide to stick to hockey.

The key: after only being able to study brains of deceased athletes, there’s a chance that living athletes with CTE might eventually be identified.

On face value, that’s great news for player health. Hockey, like other contact sports such as football, is no stranger to careers and lives being derailed by brain injuries.

Of course, the NHL and NHLPA would need to cooperate to make the most of potential progress. If you’ve watched hockey long enough, particularly postseason hockey, you know that certain protocols can stand as great concepts met with hesitant execution.

Westhead expounds on such thoughts, and some of his findings aren’t very pretty.

Players might be hesitant to take such tests if it means that they’ll miss playing time (or even see their careers end). It brings back memories of Peyton Manning willfully sandbagging his baseline concussion test. For better or worse, these guys want to play.

NHL player agent: “If I asked 30 of my players if they would take a test to tell them if they have CTE, I think zero would be interested."

Of course, it’s crucial to realize that potential breakthroughs from this study could take quite some time to trickle into functional practices, even if leagues and players end up being more willing to comply than expected.

Overall, this is promising news. Hopefully such changes could help athletes during their careers and into retirement.

Sprong, 20, was the 46th pick of the 2015 NHL Draft. He’s been generating solid numbers at the OHL, so it will be interesting to see how he converts that to AHL work. Sprong played 18 regular-season games for the Penguins back in 2015-16, notching two goals.

There are some bullet points that can sell Nolan, but the 28-year-old’s production was quite limited at the NHL level. Nolan’s never scored 10 goals in a single season; in fact, he’s only reached 10 points once in his career (six goals and four assists in 64 regular-season contests back in 2013-14).

Overall, it wouldn’t be surprising if a team targeted Nolan as a depth guy, even if his ceiling is limited.

While the Penguins’ entries seem notable for sheer volume as much as anything else, Frank Corrado is another name that stands out.

Corrado was often the catalyst for debates about his playing time (or lack thereof) with the Toronto Maple Leafs, but it doesn’t seem like the defenseman is having much success catching on with the Penguins, either.

Zatkoff, meanwhile, fits in with quite a few other names on this list: possibly prominent in the AHL, only likely to get the occasional cup of coffee in the NHL, at this point.